


Say We’ll Be Always

by spideyhclland



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But Not Much, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Whump, i don’t know how to tag, i forgot how to write, i have an issue i know, i hurt keith a lot, i kinda sort of tell a lil teensy bit of his back story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-12-23 21:07:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21087833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideyhclland/pseuds/spideyhclland
Summary: He’d failed the Garrison. He’d failed Voltron. He wouldn’t allow himself to fail the Blades as well.





	Say We’ll Be Always

Life was unfair. Keith found that out when he was four. The day his father left that morning and never came back. He remembered it clearly. How he opened the front door, excited to show his dad the painting he and the sitter had made together, only to be greeted by cops with sorrowful looks on their faces.

They said that he’d heard a voice in all of the commotion. As the structure began to fail, and the walls were caving in. And they tried to stop him, but no one had been close enough to restrain him, and no one could talk him out of running into the burning building.

The girl, who couldn’t have been much older than Keith at the time, was alive. She was taken immediately to the hospital to tend to her burns and the smoke inhalation that clogged her lungs. But his father never re-emerged. The building collapsed, and all that remained was the faded yellow suit lying underneath the rubble.

Later, after they interviewed the young girl, he found out that his father had guided her towards the exit, then turned around to do a last check. Just to make sure no one else was left behind. He saved everyone, but hadn’t been able to save himself.

Keith didn’t even get to say goodbye.

His social worker tried to get in contact with his mother, but couldn’t. Apparently she didn’t exist. That or she didn’t want him. The ladder seemed more probable. The failed attempts in finding other family members landed him in foster care.

It sucked, to say the least. Profoundly.

Not to say that the families he stayed with were bad. They were great people. It was him. There was a constant voice in the back of his head that convinced him he didn’t belong. He didn’t deserve that life. So when he really though about it, it was mostly his fault when the family couldn’t tolerate him anymore. When they contacted his social worker begging for them to take him back. He couldn’t blame them.

Not long after Keith had been through his last home. When he started believing that maybe, he was a lost cause, Shiro found him. Despite the baggage he came with, he took Keith under his wing, and cared for him like a brother. Like family. It had been the first time since his mom left and his father died that he’d begun to have hope. And then Shiro disappeared on the Kerberos mission, leaving him with no one, just like everyone else in his life had.

It was then he came to the conclusion that hope was for suckers. No point in having it if it would always end in disappointment.

So to say that Keith was familiar with the unfairness of life was an understatement. It was something he knew all to well. It may as well have been apart of him. Which made it only fitting that he had ended up in the predicament he faced currently.

“Keith. Status.”

He ripped his blade out of the fallen sentry on the ground. “Stealth isn’t really an option anymore,” he said, ducking behind a wall as more shots fired from the opposite end of the hall. “They know I’m here. I’ve been compromised.”

“Can you finish the mission?” Kolivan asked, his monotonous voice unwavering at the sound of gunshots from the former paladin’s side.

“Yeah, I’m just gonna need a little more time.”

“I fear if we wait longer than intended we will all be compromised, Keith.”

He sighed, pressing his lips together. “Fine. I’ll be at the rendezvous in fifteen.”

“Make it ten.”

Kolivan’s communicator clicked off, and Keith eyed guards waiting for him to reappear around the corner. Eight in total. He was way outnumbered. Sure he was a good fighter, but taking out eight at a time would be hard, even for him.

“Shit,” he whispered, letting his eyes wander to the ceiling. He knew what was expected, and he knew what he had to do, but this felt different. He’d been running into burning buildings his whole life. He’d been ready for this moment since he first stepped foot into the Garrison. But something was wrong, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

_ Nine minutes. _

Knowledge or death . He repeated the mantra in his head a few times, preparing himself for what he already knew had to happen. The information in this base was crucial for the fight against the Galra. It had names and locations of every base, every general. Every soldier, and every spy. Without it, they’d be right back at square one.

_ Eight minutes. _

“Screw it,” he groaned, unsheathing his blade. Mission above all else. He’d failed the Garrison. He’d failed Voltron. He wouldn’t allow himself to fail the Blades as well.

_ Seven minutes. _

Sentries weren’t intelligent. Keith knew the from the get go, so when the first one charged toward him stiffly, he felt a smile tug at the sides of his mouth. The blade cut through the robot swiftly, and it fell to the ground with a loud clank.

_ Six minutes. _

He took out the seven other sentries, hardly breaking a sweat, unlike he’d originally thought. It was too easy for Keith’s liking. A base with such valuable information should have been much more heavily guarded than it was. A few incompetent sentries was frankly quite pathetic for the Galra.

Alarm bells rang in his head as he approached the computers the sentries were protecting. Part of him screamed  ‘_ITS A TRAP. LEAVE NOW_’ . But he tried to push the thought out of his mind.

_ Five minutes. _

The screen lit up red, and Keith frowned at the sudden error.

“The hell?” He muttered, trying the decryption code again. The red error message continued to flash across the computer. “Uh, Kolivan, we have a problem. The code you gave me isn’t working.”

“They must have changed it,” Kolivan said, realization dawning on him. “They knew we were coming, you have to get out of there now.”

Keith heard a soft thud behind him, and he turned just in time to dodge a knife sailing straight for his chest. Sort of. The knife lodged itself into his upper left shoulder, and the sudden force sent him flying backwards. 

His eyes travelled to the figure who had thrown it. A mask covered their face, making it impossible to tell what they looked like. 

”Not an option. I can get the information another way.”

”Get out of there, Keith,” Kolivan’s voice grew louder with each word. “That’s an order.”

”I’ll be at the rendezvous in 5 min-dobashes. Whatever, just meet me there.” 

“Keith, you need to-“

”Sorry Kolivan.” He turned off his communicator abruptly, cutting the Blade leader off. He yanked the knife out of his shoulder, bracing himself for the pain to flare up, but it never did. If there was any pain at all, it didn’t register quite yet. He silently thanked adrenaline for being a thing. 

The figure who attacked him jumped forward, sprinting at Keith, a sword in hand. 

Keith slid easily through his attacker’s legs, and slashed his knife into their calf. They stumbled, leaning down to drip the wound. It wasn’t too deep, but deep enough to buy him some time. Not nearly enough.

_ 4 minutes. _

In the moment of shock taken by the enemy, Keith made his way back to the computers. He wasn’t Pidge, but he knew how to hack a computer. He just hoped it worked on Galra tech as well as it did on Earth. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Keith spotted the anonymous figure rising to their feet. He could tell simply from the way they stood, they were angry.

”Kolivan, you there?” Keith asked, turning the communicator back on.

”We’re almost at the rendezvous. Are you okay?”

Keith ignored the question, hoping Kolivan would forget he asked. “I’m uploading the data from the base to ours. You should get it in about 30 seconds.”

“How-“

”I know a little about hacking,” he said, his grip tightening around the hilt of his blade. “Just be ready.”

The figure charged, and Keith step sided, running them straight into the table where’d he’d previously been working. In all honesty, he was just surprised they let him talk so long.  


As easily as Keith had gotten off earlier, he realized that the figure wasn’t playing games anymore. His sword grazed Keith’s left bicep. A clean, shallow slice, leaving a dribble of blood running down his arm. 

They lunged again, and Keith was barely able to parry the strike with his own blade.

“You’re weak,” the figure snarled, pressing the sword further towards Keith’s chest.

“Yeah,” Keith grunted, returning the force. “I wonder what that makes you then.” 

He pushed them off of him with a smirk, and the figure stumbled backwards.

It took less then a few seconds for his attacker to regain their balance, and Keith had little time to react to the next strike. He was lucky he spent so much time in the training room on the Castle, or he’d be toast. 

However, with each block and strike he threw at the masked figure, he felt his strength dwindle. His left shoulder was throbbing, and he felt a wet substance leak down from the cut the knife had left behind. 

It wasn’t too much blood, but enough to make him feel slightly light headed. 

“I have the information and we’re at the rendezvous Keith, where are you?” 

“Got a little busy,” he grunted, raising his blade to block the next swing that came at him. “If I’m not there in 2 dobashes, don’t wait.”

The figure launched themselves at Keith, and he rolled between their legs to avoid the attack. They turned, only to be met with a sword to the stomach.

Keith heard a small gasp escape their mouth, as they slid down the wall, their body limp. This was a war. Death was expected, as well as killing, but he’d never had to do it before. Not this close. 

His heart raced, as he turned around, trying to forget what he’d just done. He let out a shaky breath, before speaking back into his communicator. 

“I’m on my way-“

A single shot echoed throughout the room, and pain blossomed in his abdomen. When he pulled his hands away, they were stained red. The enemy hadn’t been dead after all. Maybe that was just apart of his entire plan. He hadn’t even noticed the gun they carried.

“Keith, what was that?” Worry was evident in Koluvan’s voice.

He tried to speak, but nothing came out. Instead he dropped to the ground, blood beginning to pool around him.

“Keith! Do you copy? Keith?” 

“I’m down,” he rasped, pressing his hand to the gunshot wound. 

“Just stay on the line with me,” Kolivan said, ignoring Keith’s response. 

Keith already felt his eyelids dropping, but he forced them open upon command. 

“Stay where you are, I’m coming to get you.”

“No. It’s too dangerous,” he responded with a cough, droplets of blood landing on the floor next to him. “Just go. You have the information.” 

It was getting harder to breathe, which meant the shooter got him somewhere vital. Probably a lung. “Fuck, that’s not good,” he whispered, leaning his head back against the wall. 

“What’s not good?” 

“Nothing, nothing. I’m fine,” Keith whispered, the metallic taste filling his mouth. “Nothing serious.”

“Keep talking, Keith,” Kolivan said. He looked at the vitals from the former Paladin. They were dropping rapidly, and he felt, for the first time in a long time, feat. “You’re not fine, and I need to know you’re still there.”

“You know, I came here hoping to find my mom,” he wheezed, dropping his bluff. He felt the blood from the wound seep between the cracks in his fingers. “Can you tell me about her?”

There was silence on the other end for a second, before Kolivan responded. “She’s stubborn, a lot like you. Couldn’t tell her what to do. Or what not to do, because she’d do it anyway. She never stopped loving you, Keith. She was hoping that when it was all over, she could go back.”

“Then why did she leave?”

“She didn’t want to. She was doing what she thought was best for you safety. She didn’t want you involved in this war. She didn’t want you to get hurt.” 

Keith felt tears forming in his eyes, and couldn’t do anything to stop them from dripping down his face. “What was her name?”

“Krolia. Her name  _ is _ Krolia.”

Realization crept on his face. “She’s still alive?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, Keith. The mission she’s on is dangerous, and I didn’t want to risk her being there anymore than she already was.” 

“No, I get it,” he muttered, darkness threatening to take over. “I get it.”

No one said anything for what felt like a long time, before Keith spoke again. 

“Can you promise me something?”

“What is it?”

“Promise me, you’ll tell her about me? I want her to know that I never gave up on her. I just want her to know me. Please.”

“Just hang on a little longer and you can tell her yourself. I’m almost at your location...”

The rest of Kolivan’s words faded into the background, inaudible. 

“I’m sorry, Kolivan,” Keith whispered, letting unconsciousness finally take him. “I’m sorry.”

————

When Kolivan reached Keith, he was lying in a large pool of blood, slumped against the wall. His were eyes closed, and his skin horrifyingly pale. 

The galra picked him up, but Keith made no acknowledgment of the movement. Kolivan wasn’t human. He didn’t know how the human body worked, but he was positive that being unresponsive wasn’t a good sign. 

He checked for a pulse, and let out a breath of relief when he found one. It was hardly there, but it was still a pulse, which mean he could still be saved. 

“Hang in there, Keith.” 

————

Shiro didn’t get scared. Maybe he’d feel a little uneasy, or on edge, but he didn’t scared. Not like this.

The moment Kolivan had stepped foot into the Castle, Keith lying pale and lifeless in his arms, was the moment Shiro felt his heart stop beating. When he felt the world around him pause, like it was holding its breath in time with him. In that moment, nothing mattered more than making sure his little brother was still breathing.

He had been, though the breaths were shallow and weak, but he was still alive.

But life was unfair, and Shiro knew that. Which is why it was exactly fitting that the healing pods were out of commission. They must have gone out during their recent mission. The castle had taken a few hits, nothing too serious, but it had taken out the pods. The only consolation Shiro had felt since Kolivan arrived.

“We need to get him to the infirmary,” he said, trying to ignore the nagging voice in his head that said it was already too late. “It’s the best chance we’ll have to save him. Coran, Pidge, I need you getting those pods up and ready as soon as possible.”

————

They’d been able to stop the bleeding on the outside, but that didn’t mean anything. Keith had already lost too much, and it didn’t help the punctured lung he’d sustained. 

As Keith lay on a bed, underneath the bright light,Shiro could see how bad he actually was. A dark red stain covered the entire right side of his body, and part of his left shoulder. His lips were painted a shiny red, and dark bags hung beneath his eyes. To anyone else, it might havelooked as though he was asleep, but he wasn’t. And that scared Shiro. 

He watched as Keith took a shuddering breath. One that rattled his entire body, before he lay completely still. Shiro could hear his shallow breathing, and he could see Keith’s body move up and down as he struggled to continue fighting just moments before, but he couldn’t anymore. There was nothing but silence. 

“No,” he whispered, tightening the grip on his brother’s cold hand. “No, come on. Stay with me Keith. Stay with me.”

Nothing.

Shiro felt tears filling his eyes, blurring his vision, but he didn’t care. Keith was his little brother. He wasn’t supposed to die before him. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. Before he could even think, Shiro felt himself pressing down on Keith’s chest, in a lame attempt to revive him. 

“Shiro, step back,” Allura’s voice said. It sounded far away. 

He couldn’t move.

“Shiro you need to get out of the way,” she said again, this time more frantically.

He felt someone grab his arms, and drag him away from the still body. Allura put two odd shaped machines to Keith’s body, and he jolted. It failed. She did it again, and his body convulsed a second time. Nothing. 

He could feel his own heartbeat getting quicker, as the air felt like it was getting thinner. 

He thought he saw Allura do it for a third time, but he couldn’t be sure. He’d fallen to his knees, struggling to find air to fill his lungs. He couldn’t hear much, except the sound of himself gasping for oxygen. 

“Shiro...” Lance sounded like he was underwater. “Shiro it’s okay. Hey, look at me. Shiro!”

The third time his name was called snapped Shiro back to reality. 

“Shiro? It’s okay. He’s breathing. Come on, focus on me.”

Shiro tried, looking up at the familiar face that knelt in front of him.

Lance gave a small smile, and Shiro could just barely see his shoulders slump in relief. “That’s right, just keep looking at me. I got you. Focus on me.”

He focused on Lance’s own breathing pattern, in attempt to steady his. 

“Thank you,” he whispered, leaning back against the wall. “Is he-“

“Allura stabilized him as much as she could,” Lance said, sitting next to him. “Pidge and Coran got the pods back up, so they took him to one of them as soon as they could. Maybe a minute ago. Not even.”

“Sorry, for that,” Shiro apologized, biting his lip. 

“It’s okay,” Lance said, gripping Shiro’s hand in comfort. “I used to get panic attacks a lot. It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”

“Yeah, but I’m supposed to be your leader. Strong in the face of adversity.”

“You know, it’s okay to break down sometimes, Shiro. Or be scared,” Lance said. “Just because you have weaknesses doesn’t mean you’re weak.”

“It’s just, when he flatlined, I couldn’t stop myself. He’s my little brother. My family. If I lost him...”

He couldn’t finish his sentence. 

“How did Allura do it?”

“Some kind of Altean defibrillator,” Lance explained. “It didn’t have any magical healing properties like the pod, but it restarted his heart, which the pods can’t do.”

“Is he gonna be okay?”

“I hope so,” Lance looked down, staring at the palms of his hands. “I knew there would be a risk, coming into this war, but seeing him like that. It just made everything so much more real, you know?”

Shiro nodded, but he barely heard the blue paladin. “I never should have let him go with the Blades. If I had just been — I don’t know — a little more stubborn, this never would have happened.”

“It’s not your fault, Shiro. None of us would have been able to stop him even if we tried. He already made his decision, he was just waiting for the right time to tell us. I guess you piloting Black felt right to him.”

“How many others have died risking their lives to make sure Voltron lives? How many people like Keith, have died, or sacrificed themselves for us?”

Lance was silent. “A lot, probably. This war has been going on for thousands of years.”

“Too many. It doesn’t seem right that we get to sit back behind a virtually indestructible metal Lion while people everyday are dying for us.” 

“Shiro...” 

“He almost died today, Lance. He almost died thinking that none of us wanted him here. I don’t know how I could have failed him so badly.”

The blue paladin was taken aback by Shiro’s words. He’d never seen their leader so vulnerable. 

“You didn’t fail him. And when he wakes up, he’ll tell you the exact same thing.” 

————

When Keith stumbled groggily out of the pod, a pair of strong arms caught him before he face planted. He looked up, and was met with familiar gray eyes. 

“Shiro?” 

Shiro said nothing, but the tightening of his arms around his waist said everything. 

“How long was I in there?” 

“Almost a week,” He responded. There was apause before he continued. “I’m so sorry, Keith.”

Keith furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Sorry for what?”

“All of this. None of this would have happened if I-“

“None of this was your fault, Shiro. This was my choice. No one forced me to go on that mission. I chose to go. Kolivan told me to leave and I didn’t. Its not your fault.”

“You almost died,” Shiro said, holding his brother’s shoulders. “You  _did_ die. You flatlined in the infirmary. When Kolivan brought you in, I thought it had been the scariest moment of my life, but seeing you lie there, I really thought I lost you forever.”

Keith swallowed, a rush of guilt running through him. “I’m here now. Alive. I’m okay.”

Shiro smiled through the tears, and let go of him.“Are you good to walk? There’s a lot of people who’d like to see you.”

He nodded, stabilizing himself on the glass that concealed the pod. “Sorry, for scaring you like that.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Shiro said. “I love you, you know. Always.”

Keith smiled. “I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> i forgot how to write, like this literally took so long and underwent so much editing and it’s still horrible, but i was dedicated to finishing it so i might as well post this trash.
> 
> im garbage at action scenes and i realized that if i wrote always twice people would make fun of me for copying the fault in our stars or something. 
> 
> it’s from a song people.
> 
> anyway,
> 
> happy late birthday keith!


End file.
